Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Immigration Legal Immigrants Ripped Off by Scummy Job Broker, Rally at High Noon
Posted by PJ Tobia on Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 11:19 AM
In about an hour, a group of legal guest workers from central and South America will file an employment grievance with a Nashville job broker. The workers claim that the broker lied to them and manipulated the H2B visa system. Saket Soni, of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, says that the broker secured the visas and lured the workers here with a promise of construction jobs in Tennessee. Instead, he shipped them off to dangerous, menial jobs in other states. When some of the workers complained and asked to see their contracts, the broker had them fired.
"This is a classic maneuver," says Soni. "Employers know that guest workers' legal status is tied to their employment...Anytime that a guest worker raises their voice and asks for a little more food and water on the job, or better safety condition, they're out of a job."
At noon, the workers will be holding a press conference at the federal courthouse downtown, before marching to the National Labor Relations Board to officially file a grievance.
Pith will be there and we'll let you know who this mystery job broker is as soon as we find out.
UPDATE: The broker turns out to be Gary Lang of Cumberland Environmental Resources. I just had a long conversation with Lang. He was eminently reasonable, denied knowing anything about complaints or his workers organizing, and says that he checked with all relevant federal agencies before letting the workers go. He said he had to fire the immigrants because there was no work for them in this economy. More from my interview in a bit.
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